Producer's Letter & Dev Diary - Introducing RIFT Free-to-Play

[Oldsmokey]

Would love the option to p2pf2p

[Essala]

Oh, how the mighty has fallen.


Since Hartsman left and Daglar took over I started to be skeptical to a full blown despise the current situation of the game.


It's not a game problem but a leadership problem. Yes, I'm looking at the creative director and the producer on this one.

[Galibier]

I said pvp is an indicator of a games health...which is true.

A fever is a symptom of an illness.

If you want to continue that analogy your use of PvP as an indicator is akin to the Dr. saying "you have a fever, it's probably just the flu, go home and get some bed rest." While ignoring all the other issues that show you the patient has bacterial meningitis and needs serious treatment to avoid death.

[Glamour]

Oh, how the mighty has fallen.


Since Hartsman left and Daglar took over I started to be skeptical to a full blown despise the current situation of the game.

Leaving a company before any of the mud can stick to him.

Hartsman's greatest skill

[Ajax1114]

Right lets say i cancel my sub because now the perks you give me are crap ! as you wont let me have expansions or maybe just souls with my sub.

Then after F2P transition new souls come out someone can buy the new OP souls yet i dont buy them.

That to me sounds like P2W right there.

I like paying a sub so i feel like i am not getting robbed. I will say it for myself and many more out there.

ALOT OF YOUR OLDER GAMERS DO NOT LIKE MICRO TRANSACTIONS.

What if, after F2P comes out, you stop paying a sub fee and instead pay something like a one-time $10 for a new soul that you get forever? Overall, have you lost money or gained money compared to what you used to pay?

I seriously doubt Trion devs are just so amazingly awesome that as soon as F2P hits, they're going to start churning out wads of new souls which you will be forced to buy all of to compete.

I understand the wariness and I've never liked the idea of micro transactions myself, but for all the bad things I could say about Trion, they do genuinely try to listen to their community and many of the devs play the game, so it's not like they would look forward to paying micro transactions to compete either. However, they know something that many of us don't and that's the perspective of being a human being whose paycheck is tied to success in a brutally competitive industry.

Their decisions can't always be about the players, including themselves as players, first. Sometimes they just have to pay the bills.

[Xillean]

After taking some time to let this sink in further I do not feel this is the end of rift or the sky is falling. However knowing you planed to go to f2p and still selling us the yearly deal is shady at best and I am displeased with that as you should have known it would have affected many of our decisions on whether or not to buy the year deal and im sorry but converting my remaining 500 plus days to credit is not encouraging since I may not want anything your selling in your store.

Sure I might want something but not having a choice I do feel a bit cheated or forced into this situation and it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. That being said I will still continue to support you and am willing to give your f2p a chance, hell I still have a active eq2 sub and have been with them for 5 years plus. But you need to realize how this looks to some of your customers and honestly the right thing to do imo is to offer refunds to those who wish it (I am not one of them but still a gesture of good faith/intent if you will)

Also I can not stress enough that without a monthly amount of credit with a sub your current sub model is no where near worth 15 dollars, some of the perks can be seen as nice but its not enough, even just 5 dollars worth of credit for a 15 dollar sub would be fine imo since it would allow people who wish to support you via a sub the option to do so while feeling like we can save our credits for items without spending more or if we want it now add a lil more money we can to get it right away.

Just my 2cp on the matter

[Galibier]

Okay onto suggestions because I do not want to appear like a complete negative nancy. Daglar have you considered a true p2p/f2p? This would include the following...

1. Giving a certain amount of store currency for your subscription.

2. Giving new souls for an active subscriptions.

I actually believe 2 makes sense business wise. Let me explain. We get that you are not dumb. You know that the point of the f2p model is to try and get players to pay more than a subscription would cost. That said the subscription as recurring has value as it is a steady and consistent revenue stream where f2p can be spikey as all hell. With NW nd ESO on the horizon you want to have something in place to encourage people not to game hop. I have been speaking a lot of people and it is not what is being done but HOW it is being done that is pissing people off. A common refrain I am hearing is "yeah NW is f2p BUT it is f2p from the beginning and I was bait and switched on a year long sub when I bought it."

Sometimes your bluntness can be a two edged sword and your admission that this transition was known before you got people locked in on one year subs has caused A LOT of angst.

[Oldsmokey]

what does free2play mean?

[Frailaq]

Nothing much is changing for us...

This couldn't be more wrong. The game is switching from sub based to F2P. If you've ever played both kinds of MMOs you'd realize just how big a change that is. Sure, some people don't mind either one but others paid a pretty hefty subscription based on the knowledge that Rift was subscription based and many of those would not have subscribed had they known that Rift would be going F2P or they would've only subscribed up through the date it would go F2P. It's the fact that Trion isn't offering refunds (or even providing them after being asked) that's so upsetting to so many people.

[Frailaq]

Rift is going F2P.

They won't change it back to sub just because we all whine so why keep whining?

I really liked RIFT and this F2P thing is total BS to me and is also the reason I leave RIFT.

Those who don't like it just find a new mmo and move on?

(Pointless to keep whining)

Because some people paid for years of subscription time in advance as an investment in the security of Rift staying sub based and Trion isn't wanting to refund that money now that they're changing the pricing model. I don't care if Trion wants to go F2P... that's fine with me. Just give me back my money so I can leave without that bitter aftertaste of betrayal.

[Misun]

If you want to continue that analogy your use of PvP as an indicator is akin to the Dr. saying "you have a fever, it's probably just the flu, go home and get some bed rest." While ignoring all the other issues that show you the patient has bacterial meningitis and needs serious treatment to avoid death.

Hahaha...that's pretty much what happened too.

You read the PvP forum, I'm sure you've seen it all. People practically got on their knees and begged for improvements/new content etc.

Oh well, too late now.

Archeage is going to flop next. Some really bad reviews out there.

[Mordrahan]

This REX thing is what worries me a lot.
If I understand well, this is the same than in GW2.
People buy REX with real money, sell REX ingame for pp. But this is not at a constant and garanteed rate. You will need people ingame willing to buy your REX at a decent price.
On GW2 there were many people selling, but no people buying because ingame money was very scarce.
What I fear is REX selling for very low price in PP because not many players got thousand of pp to buy these REX things. So for the few people rich in pp things would be good, but for people who want to have more pp via REX, I think this will cost them a fortune in real money.
So when people say, buy REX with your ingame pp and you will not have to pay the cash shop with real money, this is true only for a minority of players.

[Lyannah]

I would have preferred if Trion implemented an increased subscription fee than go F2P. The people you want to keep don't want to spend money on gimmicky rubbish, they want content.

[Misun]

??

Except there is nothing p2w about it.
The best gear is still gained from playing the game.
So its not at all pay to win.
-_-

Not at all.
Elrar said it himself that the Storm Legion souls are unlocked with Storm legion and that game content such as zones and the like are not bought through the store.

You're looking for reasons to sustain your position, you're not actually finding any.


It might be wardrobe items.
It might be items that were similar to the items from the vendors before SL that cost over 1k worth in inscribed source stone to get.

Worse than raid gear and the expert gear that was available in the equivalent gear.
Its not pay to win because you're not winning anything.

Its the same as people in Vindictus gettin a token that prevents the negatives to failing a weapon enchant.
Sure you have an easier time getting to +10, but the actual negatives hit everyone equally beyond it, and even then it never prevented a failure just the consequences.

So you'd have to grind just as hard as anyone else did.
Would it kill people to wait and see?

The ability to have a weapon wardrobe slot can only be gotten via the CASH SHOP. This was confirmed yesterday.

New role slots that come out will have to be purchased via the CASH SHOP. This was confirmed yesterday.

They are also going to be selling gold too btw...

[Dunharrow]

I said pvp is an indicator of a games health...which is true.

A fever is a symptom of an illness.

And everyone else said you're wrong. No one gives a crap about PvP except you and a tiny smattering of other people who think what they want is all that matters.